The new feature of the Facebook-owned messaging app is a clone of Snapchat’s story feature, as well as Instagram stories, which was also updated with the ‘story’ feature in August 2016. Today, WhatsApp completes 8 years in the digital era and is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app worldwide with more than a billion users. “We are rolling out an update to status, which allows you to share photos and videos with your friends and contacts on WhatsApp in an easy and secure way. Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted,” Jan Koum, CEO and co-founder, Whatsapp, stated.
WhatsApp Status v/s Snapchat Story v/s Instagram Story
All the three apps now have a ‘Story’ feature, and they all work pretty much in the same manner, except a few minor differences which we’ve discussed below.
Your Audience
WhatsApp’s one billion plus and Instagram’s 300 million users dwarf the 150 million users on Snapchat by huge numbers.
WhatsApp status update can only be seen by your contacts and you can also choose which contacts can view your status update and which ones cannot.Instagram Stories can be viewed by anyone on the app unless of course, your account’s privacy settings allow only your followers do that. You can also choose to hide the story from specific people and control message replies to your stories too.Snapchat stories are available to everyone on the platform.
Editing Features
While all three apps have almost the same editing features which are made available prior to posting your story — including adding text, doodle and emoticon — there are a few features that separate the three apps.
Whatsapp status update has the unique feature of captioning your update and cropping the image before it goes live.While doodling on the other two apps means you can draw on top of the image using different colours, doodling on Instagram stories gives you options like a thin, thick and glowy line for drawing handsfree. Heart doodles are also available on the app which gives you an option to doodle with a series of hearts or just put one or two or as many as you want, somewhere in the story.The unique editing feature of Snapchat is that it allows you to cut a piece of your image, which is added to your emoticon gallery.
Snapchat and Instagram stories have another editing feature which allows the users to experiment with different filters just by swiping the image on the edit mode. This feature isn’t available on WhatsApp status update.
Camera Screen/Updating Options
In addition to clicking an image or recording a video clip, WhatsApp also allows you to upload images, GIFs and video clips from the internal storage of your device — a feature neither Instagram or Snapchat have.In addition to posting an image or video directly from the camera screen, Instagram allows you to use third-party apps like Boomerang and Handsfree to post your story on the app.Snapchat only allows image and video captured live to be posted on its platform.
Apart from all these differences, a WhatsApp status is end-to-end encrypted, adding an extra layer of security. Facebook and the company it owns — Instagram and WhatsApp — have been cloning Snapchat‘s popular features in a bid to gain a monopoly over the social networking ecosphere. Given the large user base on the social network as well as its photo sharing and messaging app, Snapchat’s chances of longevity in the digital world look dim. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
